Abstract
Diamond-like carbon (DLC) films were prepared with CH4-Ar using a capacitively coupled plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (CCP-CVD) method driven by dual-frequency of 41 MHz and 13.56 MHz in combination. Due to a coupling via bulk plasma, the self-bias voltage depended not only on the radiofrequency (RF) power of the corresponding electrode but also on another RF power of the counter electrode. The influence of the discharge parameters on the deposition rate, optical and Raman properties of the deposited films was investigated. The optical band decreased basically with the increase in the input power of both the low frequency and high frequency. Raman measurements show that the deposited films have a maximal sp3 content with an applied negative self-bias voltage of −150 V, while high frequency power causes a continuous increase in the sp3 content. The measurement of atomic force microscope (AFM) shows that the surface of the deposited films under ion-bombardment becomes smoother than those with non-intended self-bias voltage.